Your Dreams Coming True In The Kitchen

Ragù Alla Bolognese by Sonia Peronaci www.giallozafferano.it T he famous meat sauce called Ragú alla Bolognese, means meat sauce, a specialty of Bologna, the capital of the region of Emilia-Romagna in Italy....

E aster in 2014 will be celebrated, according to this year's calendar, by both the Greek Orthodox Church and the rest of the Christian world....

W hat the heck are "Baby Patty Kebab Koftas" ?? Well, they are exactly what they say they are, baby, because the patty is small, kebab because they have the taste of the Egyptian kebab, and koftas because they were round like a ball when they were made and flattened into a patty to make perfectly round patties.  So Baby Pattie Kebab Koftas sounds cute, nice...

T oday I went to the Athens Meat Market because I needed to buy "Lamb Necks", not the head, not the rest of the lamb,  just the necks.Well....I had my lesson for the day!!....

 T here is nothing like meatloaf, steaming hot gravy and baked potatoes on a cold day. Oh yes, autumn is here to stay for the next 2 months, the weather is quite cool outside, more so inside our home and since we are in a financial crisis, we are trying to delay central heating for as long as we can. We are using our fireplace and burning wood instead. Very cosy but we need a Christmas tree as well to go with it but by then we will have so much central heating we will be running around the house with T-shirts and shorts! I checked and it looks like have already written about the meatloaf in my very early posts but this time I am adding pictures! Mushrooms and sweet red wine.

N ow that it is hot, a cold slice of the meat pie with salad would be welcome for lunch or dinner.....read more

A s we all know sweet dried fruit goes well with pork. The best and tenderest part of a pig is the tenderloin or known as  "filet" in this part of the world.  When Specially treated can produce a very nice dish.

 Brass Sous-Plat Setting Of The Table Seat With Birthday Hat Was Barbara's. Wow !! I've been away a long time...seems like ages!! I missed you guys. Well dinner was an absolute success,  Sous-Plats and all!! lots of back rubbing in our small kitchen, fun, drinks and music while cooking (loud speaker in the kitchen from the main stereo in the living room), heat! but then they say "if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen". In this episode of my blog I will just mention the 4 course menu planned; and this is to tickle your appetite for what's to come.

Prosciutto Di Parma With Very Thin Slices Of Carrot And Iceberg Lettuce Q:  What could you eat for dinner when you had a big lunch ?? A:   A Prosciutto Di Parma Salad.

The Skewer Needs To Be Flat About One Centimeter Wide So The Resulting Kofta Is Flat And Cookes Easier.  K ofta Kebab is very oriental, very Arab, and deliciously Egyptian.

Just Before Roasting T he other day I was at my butcher's and saw this beautiful piece of leg of pork so I bought it. I love pork in any shape, form or manner! Since you may like the idea and fix it someday here's what was used. You will need: -  1.5 kg of pork cut in medium chunks. -  1 big orange cut in pieces. -  Juice of one big orange. -  1 big green apple cut in pieces. -  2 inches worth of fresh ginger cut julienne. -  1 Florina sweet red pepper roughly cut. -  1 onion roughly cut. -  6 cloves of garlic crushed and chopped. -  Oregano -  Olive oil. -  1 whole hot chili pepper. -  Some black pepper corns. -  Salt and freshly ground black pepper. Method: -  Put all above ingredients in a deep plate and rub well.  Leave to marinate for a couple of hours. -  Empty plate in a baking paper lined aluminum foil and close. -  Roast closed in 220 degree preheated oven for...

A Kondo Souvli K óndo Soúvli means "short skewer". Don't really know why it's called that because it is made from marinated big pieces of pork passed onto a long skewer rotated by a motor over hot charcoal. For private home purposes it is passed through a normal shish kebab skewer or souvlaki as it is known in Greece about 10 inches long, you can either buy ready from the supermarket (during Easter days supermarkets have them ready to buy and cook) or you can fix it at home by buying the pieces of pork and doing all the job yourself.  The idea of the Kónto Soúvli is that as it turns, the heat from the charcoal cooks only the surface all all round, so after a while it has been turning, you stop the machine from revolving, you quickly put your plate under it, and cut only about an inch of the surface. The rest inside still needs to cook. In professional taverns they usually have it cooking about 4 to 5 hours before people are expected, so ther...

Baby Goat (Chevron) E aster is on Sunday and people who celebrate Easter usually eat lamb. Lately, however, everybody is colesterol conscious and therefore has began eating goat (chevron) instead, because it is leaner. Butchers usually sell the leg with the shoulder including the ribs and if you are lucky a kidney. I usually separate the leg, the ribs, and the shoulder and cook each separately in a different way each. Assuming you will cook everything together, I still would suggest you cut off the ribs and keep them for some other time to serve them like this: Photo Courtesy of Google French Trimmed Bones With No Meat Dangling You will therefore need: -  Whatever goat cut you have bought. -  About 4 cloves of garlic cut in two. -  8 pieces of fresh rosemary cut from your garden or pot. -  Cut little pieces of the rosemary so you can insert them with the garlic. -  Any prepared mustard, Colman's hot o...

Elongated Pear Shaped Eggplant My Photo The Moussaka Next Morning If you ever decide to make a Moussaka make sure to prepare it and cook it the day before and refrigerate overnight. Next day it can be heated or eaten at room temperature. I guarantee you it will be 1000 times tastier forgetting the fact that after you finish cooking it you will be ready to go to bed to sleep for the night!! Specially when you have to cook for lunch of that day as well and wash the pots and pans you have used...we were very spoilt where we came from..... so...are you ready to go on a crusade back to the middle ages??

O ne thing is for sure in cooking, nothing goes to waist. Everything is used in one way or another. Yesterday's recipe "meat torpedos with garlic and mint" refrigerated (not frozen)  left over uncooked ground beef was used this morning to make a very nice sauce for "Farfalle" pasta using mushrooms, dill and cream. We had a tomato and lettuce salad on the side and it was delicious. I would love to share it with you, maybe you would find it as good as we all did.

Map Courtesy of Google B efore presenting my today's recipe, I would first like to share with you a little bit of history. The origin of this recipe is Byzantine; meaning that it was being cooked by Greek families well before the first millennium A.D. and well before the Ottoman Empire invaded and took over Byzantium in 1453 A.D. which included what we know of today's Greece.  Cities like Constantinople now Istanbul, and Smirni now Ismir were Greek. They had imported various spices from the Middle and Far East which were used in their cuisine. It is known that Greece was always a leading country in shipping. All the places were inhabited by Greeks who established their identity all through these centuries. Therefore the food was basically Greek and the Ottomans learned it and continued it.

Transparent Pyrex Mold Bottom Decorated By Adding Set Beef Gelatine My Photo   Thickly Sliced Slightly Smoked Ham Hanging Over the Sides My Photo  FillingHalf The Mold My Photo Molded Ham Aspic My Photo        Unmolding Aspic With Blowtorch My Photo Final Product My Photo    A Slice Of Ham Aspic My Pho I have in mind to share with you something for special occasions; something served as an entrée. A square cake mold lined with slightly smoked ham filled with peas / carrots / corn / mushrooms bathed in a beef broth gelatine which you can slice.   You will need: Serves 6 - 8  -  6 thickly sliced slightly smoked boiled ham. -  150 gms of peas cooked. -  150 gms of carrots cubes cooked. -  150 gms of sweet corn drained. -  150 gms of mushrooms cooked. -...

  I Have Taken This Picture Most Delicious Picture.  My Mouth Is Watering  I t may be Spring but the weather is still cold, and you need to eat something which will warm you up.  I would like to share with you today "La Chouroute Alsacienne" prepared my way. First I would like to share with you some background information. Alsace is one of the  26 regions of France. It is on the border with Germany, on the river Rhine. Wines, specially the white such as the Riesling from that region are very good.  Of course, since it is  neighbouring Germany, it is spcialized in all kinds of salami, and sausages. They also like pickled cabbage known as Choucroute or Sauerkraut.

Ah! So you had some leftover chopped liver (my recipe dated March 13th) and you don't feel like eating it the next day or the day after. So you can deep freeze it for a maximum of one week. The day you feel like eating it, you could do the following: Step 1:  Thaw. Step 2:  Depending on the quantity leftover, boil an equivaltent quantity of butterflies (farfalle) or any other pasta you haven't eaten for a long time. Step 3:  Have 500 ml of Fresh Cream on hand (full cream 35% fat; none of that "light" stuff). Step 4:  Put the liver in a wide and deep pan, heat. Add the pasta mix well, add the cream to make a nice, rich, liquid sauce. Step 5:  Top with freshly ground pepper,  freshly grated parmezan cheese,  and sprinkle some finely chopped parsley for decoration. Serve quickly because the pasta loves cream as it will suck it up real quick and you may end up with dry pasta. A t...

G ood ol' " English School" of Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt fed us many a time this shepherd's pie because it is cheap, filling, and has lots of vitamins from the meat and the potatoes. I was a "day boy"meaning I had lunch at school but returned home for the night. When I made "prefect" I ate with the professors at "Head Table" . I remember I belonged to the Amazon House. Wow good old days. British habits. Shepherd's pie is made with meat and potatoes not beside each other but one on top of the other, potatoes on top, and baked till the potatoes brown on the surface. Easier even if it is made with left over mashed potatoes, and left over ground meat sauce (omitting the juices) Life has become so fast nowadays that we sometimes do not feel like cooking or do not have the time to prepare complicated stuff so we can use leftovers to make up new dishes. However, if you feel like making a decent shepherd's pi...